Let’s Get Cultured EurAsia | Youth Exchange

Dates:19-28 September 2019

Venue: Istanbul, Turkey

Organizer NGO:  KANGO and Youth Senate Tallinn

Project Description

Technology is changing our society and our lives. A change in technology leads to a change in culture. In the era of globalization, it is very easy to lose your true cultural identity, but culture as a “historical reservoir” plays an opposite role in shaping it. Nowadays young people tend to forget their cultural backgrounds due to the pace of progress in the last decades. We see this as a big problem having generations that do not appreciate their traditions and do not take it as richness. Not only such attitude influences your own development but it also builds a negative or neutral attitude towards other cultures.

“Let’s get cultured: EurAsia” is a follow-up project that gathered youngsters from European and Asian continents to get to know the diversity of European countries and its neighbors, to develop the ability to see the unifying elements of cultural diversity and to explore the meaning of cultural identity, stereotypes, and prejudices. In this context 36 young people from Turkey, Estonia, Spain, Macedonia, Russia, Armenia, and Jordan has gathered in Istanbul, the place where east meets west. We spent an unforgettable 10 days with our friends in Ağva. During these 10 days, the participants taught their traditional dances, foods, stories & legends of their countries to each other in various ways. Afterward, these three main topics were divided into groups and they prepared a final event to present at a local high school. According to this final event, a dance show in which all countries’ dances were mixed, a theater play telling the stories and legends of the participating countries and the traditional dishes prepared by the participants with their own hands were presented to the young people in Dr. Vasıf Topçu High school. This event, which was prepared to raise awareness about cultural diversity and Erasmus + opportunities, attracted great attention from our young friends.

This youth exchange is designed for motivated young people that are interested to work on the topic of culture, deepen their knowledge, and who care about keeping cultural traditions alive. And when we see the feedbacks, the project has succeeded.

This project designed by Youth Senate Tallinn, organized by KANGO and funded by Estonian National Agency.

You can see the video of the project what they have done for these 10 days in Istanbul.